15-07-17 – Stourport Swifts 0 Harriers 8

Published: 15-07-17

Ironside goes quad against the Swifts

The Harriers comprehensively trounced neighbours Stourport Swifts in this annual friendly game at Walshes Meadow this afternoon. 8 – 0 was the final scoreline with four of those coming from Joe Ironside.

Out of the eleven starting the game only two were triallists. Ex Woking and Ebbsfleet goalie Brandon Hall was the un-named trial keeper but the tall number 6 was not known at all. On the bench were more triallists along with academy player, Keiran Finglass, and Josh Webb who was here at the end of last season. Also a youngster named ? Danko.

It took just nine minutes for Ironside to open the scoring and then after that most of the chances to score fell to Andre Brown but he was a little profligate in front of goal after failing to lob the keeper in a one on one and then firing straight at the keeper soon after. Mani Sonupè was also guilty of dithering on the ball and trying too hard as he found himself surrounded by Swifts players each time he found space to shoot.

Josh Webb had come on earlier to replace the injured Tyrone Williams.

In the second half the floodgates opened after a delay to the re-start due to a goalkeeper mix up on the Swifts part. It seems that they were expecting to play the Harriers rookie keeper Tom Palmer after it was agreed that he would join them on a season long loan but the referee had other ideas after it was found he hadn’t been named on the team sheet. The first half keeper was told to change back out of his tracksuit and take to the field again.

A minute in and the 1 – 0 scoreline was doubled when Ryan Croasdale fired in from distance past a static keeper and then Ironside added his second a minute later. With that comprehensive lead a flurry of changes were made with James McQuilkin, Sonupè and Croasdale all making way for triallists.

Ironside collected the match ball just before the hour mark and then Sam Austin, playing at left back, drove forward, took two shots, and scored while Andre Brown finally got his name on the scoresheet with our sixth goal.

With the minutes ticking away Liam Truslove added the seventh just seconds before Ironside round his, and ours, game off the his fourth and our eighth by shooting in on the angle.

As for the triallists we learnt that the number 6 played all game so could be signed up soon while the others we a little ordinary. The number 21, Junior ?, looked useful and so did the keeper. The number 17 from the previous games against Derby and Villa wasn’t there.